Has anyone built a Strawberry Tower?

[PLUMPUDDING]

I've been given some wonderful varieties of strawberries by a very generous person through this web-site and have an idea for building some kind of tower so they use up less garden and are easy to manage.

I've seen a few ideas on the internet for home made ones and ready made plastic ones, but wondered if anyone had made one or could comment on or recommend one from experience.

[peter]

Had one of the large urn variety.
Would dry out easily and when watered had a tendency for the water to come out the plant holes instead of soaking further down.

[FelixLeiter]

I don't rate them. Feeding and watering must be continuous if the strawberries are to crop well. They soon get to look a mess. I've only seen them looking any good in plant catalogues and / or Sunday supplement adverts where clearly they've been primped and grown optimally for the camera. Strawberries are far better grown in the ground, in my opinion.

[PLUMPUDDING]

Yes I did wonder about making sure they didn't dry out. If I could solve the watering problem, I think they might be happy in that situation as some escapees from an old bed seem to do very well on a steep sunny banking.

I can't imagine the little plastic ones with holes in would have enough moisture and soil, but might try constructing one myself and see what happens. Possibly three tiers high with one of those porous tubes down the middle for extra watering. I've enough plants to try it out without risking them all.

[Westi]

On the subject of strawberries - has anyone grown those climbing ones?
It was in one of the many catalogues that came through which I can't find now but was interested as I have a lot of fence to cover and would release ground for other crops.

Westi

[PLUMPUDDING]

I'm always a bit suspicious of things described as climbing when they don't normally do this. I would imagine strawberries would more likely be hanging or trailing, so if you could encourage them to go upwards and tie them up I suppose you could call them climbing (at a stretch).

[PLUMPUDDING]

I decided to buy something described as a herb pyramid as I needed to free up the garden all the strawberries were in. It is plenty big enough, and looks quite pleasing now it is planted up, but it is made from polystyrene so may damage easily if I catch it with anything.

I've put some pea gravel in the bottom of each section for extra drainage and put some enriched compost in so hopefully it won't dry out too quickly.

It was very easy to put together and nice and light to move about (before I filled it up).

I've stuck a pole down the middle so I can put a net over it all to keep the birds off the fruits.

I've also ordered some of the red flowered strawberry plants in the April KG magazine to contrast with the white flowered ones.